


Play It by Ear

by sarcasm_for_free



Category: Knives Out (2019)
Genre: Bickering, Family Dynamics, Gen, Meg's trying to keep up, Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Canon, Prison, Ransom Drysdale Being an Asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22070164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasm_for_free/pseuds/sarcasm_for_free
Summary: “This is a call fromMassachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction. InmateHugh Ransom Drysdaleis trying to reach you. If you’re willing to accept the call, please press 1. Otherwise, press 2.”Meg presses 1, though she’s not sure why.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 126





	Play It by Ear

**Author's Note:**

> I love this movie and I thought it was time for more fics about Meg, and prison!Ransom is always fun :P

_“This is a call from **Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction**. _Inmate **_Hugh Ransom Drysdale_** _is trying to reach you. If you’re willing to accept the call, please press 1. Otherwise, press 2.”_

Meg stared at the phone in her hand, considering if she should just chuck the whole thing through the window.

Marta was out for a meeting with her lawyer and had, graciously, given her free rein to use the mansion’s living room to work on a few new pieces for her university courses, and to escape her mother Joni’s wailing. Answering landline calls wasn’t something she was supposed to do here, not anymore.

She pressed 1.

“Meg, Meggy, Megster,” Ransom’s smarmy voice greeted her. She didn’t know how he’d gathered she would be here, that it would be her picking up. Uneasy, she gripped the phone harder.

“What do you want?”

“Is that any way to talk to your favorite cousin?” He didn’t sound hurt at all, more like he was talking through an infuriating grin. Not even prison had been able to change him, it seemed.

“You’re responsible for Harlan’s death, you killed Fran, and you tried to kill _Marta_ ,” Meg hissed. She hoped the people monitoring these calls got all of that.

“Well, it didn’t turn out so bad for you, little lambkin. Walt said you have it pretty cushy, with Miss Cabrera paying your tuition fee and you hanging out at her new house all the time,” he said, all charm and laissez-faire attitude.

“ _Walt_ is talking to you?” He wasn’t very high on her list of suspects when it came to people wanting to stay in contact with Ransom.

“Even comes to visit me every Friday. All about the gloating, of course. But who am I to deny him his last pleasure in life. Apropos pleasure, how’s it, being Latina Lolita’s kept girl? Your tongue getting numb by now?”

“How many times did you have to drop the soap this week? It’s inexplicable to me how you still have the energy to pester me.”

“Oooooh, shots fired,” he drawled.

Her hand was getting sweaty from holding the receiver, but she was, strangely enough, becoming calmer. This was the same Ransom she’d known all her life. A self-centered rich boy with more looks than heart. ( _You weren’t such a paragon of virtue yourself when you tried to weasel money out of Marta_ , whispered her conscience. _Just the weakest link to get manipulated by your family at the drop of a hat._ )

“I repeat, what do you want?”

He audibly pouted, overly affected. “Just a little chat with a familiar voice. It can be utterly boring when there’s no one fun around to shiv.”

“Not something you’re particularly good at, if I remember correctly.”

“My, my, aren’t we catty today. I really did pick the right time to call.” He sounded so fucking happy, as if she’d made all his dreams come true, but it was common place for him, so she couldn’t figure out how truthful he was being. Probably not at all.

“I’d be this way every single time if it was you on the other end of the line.”

He sighed, and Meg heard someone knocking on concrete on the other side.

“It warms my heart. You’re really giving me ample reason to call more often,” he quipped.

“I hope I’ll be here to hear Marta rip you a new one when you do.”

“Sorry to disappoint, won’t happen.” Obviously not sorry enough, he laughed into her ear.

She smirked, the queasy feeling forgotten. “Don’t think she has it in her? You should know better, Ransom.”

“Oh, I do, but _she_ never takes my calls.”

For a second lost for words, she heard the knocking again.

There was the sound of rustling before Ransom spoke on. “Have to go now, Megs, my jailer’s getting antsy. Till next time.”

She lowered the phone, but didn’t stop gazing at it as if it was a bomb about go off. The last ten minutes had been weird, absolutely weird.

And uncomfortably exhilarating.

* * *

Ransom hung up and turned to his left.

“Put her on my list of visitors.” He pressed a folded banknote into prison officer McLarson’s hand.

McLarson bagged old Benjamin’s face and leaned against the cold grey wall behind him. “You sure she’ll come? She didn’t sound that euphoric to hear from you, from where I’m standing.”

“Maybe not this week, or the next. But give it time,” Ransom hummed and started sauntering back to cellblock B, fingering the Go stone in his pocket. “I’m playing the long game.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dun dun duuuun ;)  
> Hope you liked this little brain baby of mine. Feedback would make my day.


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